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Demeter
Demeter Demeter is a true controversial god. There have been many aspects of Demeter. Demeter has always been known as a triune goddess meaning that she has three forms. In some of the earliest accounts Demeter was triune goddess representing the Virgin, the Mother, and the Crone, representing the cycle of birth, life, and death. Another aspect of Demeter was known as the Aganippe a black winged horse worshiped by certain cults. In this aspect she was portrayed as mare-headed with a mane entwined with Gorgon Snakes. This aspect was also associated with Anion whom Heracles rode, who later inspired tales of Pegasus. Aganippe became associated with a spring, where Pegasus was born according to one legend, and the nymph of the same name. Persephone Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. Persephone was a beautiful goddess with a very well rounded personality. That made her attractive to almost every god and every god wanted to marry her but Demeter forbade any god from marrying her daughter. For good measure she built an enchanted gate around her home where Persephone and Demeter lived. The gate was enchanted so that no god may come in or out without Demeter’s knowledge. Now Hades, god of the Underworld, was exceptionally lonely down in the Underworld. He had an eye for Persephone and he wished to marry her but he didn’t know how to get Persephone without Demeter knowing. So he came up with a plan so that he can kidnap Persephone. So one day when Persephone was tending to her mother’s garden Hades came from the ground, snatched Persephone, and went back to the Underworld. Later Demeter went to go check up on her daughter when she found her missing. She went hysterical looking for Persephone. She traveled the whole entire world. Because Demeter was sad the world lay barren because she was the god of the harvest and no crops grew. She eventually went to Zeus. When Zeus found word that Persephone was being held in the Underworld he demanded that he return her at once. But Hades was not going to give her up so easily and so he tricked Persephone into eating four pomegranate seeds. When you eat food from the Underworld you are trapped there until for eternity. Afterwards Hades told Zeus that he would allow Persephone back into the custody of Demeter unless they let her back into the Underworld for four months of the year. He also said that he would not give Persephone back until they agreed with his idea. Desperate Demeter agreed with Hades’s idea. Then Hades gave Persephone back to Demeter. This myth explains winter, for those four months when Persephone is gone Demeter is sad and so the world stays barren and cold. Demeter and Poseidon Demeter and Poseidon’s names are linked in the earliest scratched notes at Mycenaean Pylos. In the myths of isolated Arcadia in southern Greece, Persephone, the daughter of Demeter and Poseidon Hippios, Horse-Poseidon. These myths seem to be connected with the first Greek-speaking people who came from the north during the Bronze Age. Poseidon represents the river spirit of the underworld and he appears as a horse as it often happens in northern-European folklore. He pursues the mare-Demeter and she bears one daughter who obviously originally had the form or the shape of a mare too. Demeter and Despoina were closely connected with springs and animals, related to Poseidon as a God of waters and especially with the mistress of the animals Artemis who was the first nymph. Demeter as mare-goddess was pursued by Poseidon, and hid from him among the horses of King Onkios, but could not conceal her divinity. In the form of a stallion, Poseidon caught and covered her. Demeter was furious at Poseidon's assault; in this furious form, she is known as Demeter Erinys. But she washed away her anger in the River Ladon, becoming Demeter Lousia, the "bathed Demeter". She bore a daughter Despoina whose name should not be uttered outside the Arcadian Mysteries and a horse named Arion, with a black mane and tail. In Arcadia, Demeter's mare-form was worshiped into historical times. Her xoanon of Phigaleia shows how the local cult interpreted her: a Medusa type with a horse's head with snaky hair, holding a dove and a dolphin, probably representing her power over air and water. Bibliography "Demeter." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 16 May 2012. Web. 17 May 2012. . "DeviantART: Where ART Meets Application!" DeviantART: Where ART Meets Application! Web. 17 May 2012. .